I once worked with a Job active team who decided to dedicate two full days out of the month of August for marketing to employers. They shut down the office, rescheduled jobseeker appointments and got on the phones to market. After two full days of marketing, and dialling hundreds of phone numbers, they didn’t have the results that they expected. So, they never repeated those marketing days ever again.
Little did they realise that prospecting is not a one-time event, but a consistent repetition of activities and rituals. A combination of prospecting habits and touch points that will eventually reap the rewards.
When they made contact with employers, they did not document much of the conversation, did not ask any engaging questions to discover further opportunities down the road, nor did they collect email addresses to send out more information. But most importantly, none of the warm leads made it into the pipeline, as this team had no idea about filling a pipeline or following up habits.
This team kept chasing new business and playing a tiresome game of frustration. They wondered why it was so difficult to place people into work, and why their star ratings were suffering.
My biggest advice to marketing teams in employment services is, do not look at prospecting as a one-time event, or get frustrated if you don’t reap the results right away. It’s critical to practice delayed gratification and have a strategy. Master salespeople understand that all the daily prospecting rituals they do today, will reap results tomorrow.
Here are my four tips for better prospecting habits.
Focus on filling your employer pipeline – As I already mentioned, prospecting is not a one-time event. Daily prospecting habits need to be applied daily. We don’t just make a call, ask if they have a vacancy and hang up if they don’t. Instead, we ask questions, find out about their business, how they do their hiring process and enquire if there are future opportunities. We need to build some type of rapport, and most importantly, get their email address so we can send them more information. Depending on that conversation and their current and future needs, it’s critical that we add them into our pipeline.
Practice delayed gratification – Do you get frustrated after just an hour of prospecting by phone, email, social media, or face to face if you don’t see instant results? Do you expect to hear a ‘yes we have a vacancy’ right then and there? Or have you mastered the art of delayed gratification, planting your seeds, creating daily habits and nurturing relationships? Research shows that people who practice delayed gratification and who don’t expect instant results are more successful overall. So, it’s critical to practice delayed gratification in all your prospecting activities in order to see success.
Develop a strategy – The best salespeople understand that they need to have a plan and strategy. They don’t just pick up the phone, send cold emails, engage in Linkedin social selling, or go door knocking before understanding their goals, why they are important and a step by step plan of how they will achieve them. They review their long-term goals monthly and activities daily.
Use a combination of prospecting habits – Successful prospecting does not just happen on the phone, but through a combination of communication methods. From LinkedIn relationship building, discovery calls, content creation, cold emailing, value-adding, voice mail, door knocking, and following up. We must never just use one prospecting method, such as cold calling and think that we will get the results, as there are many touchpoints and methods for reaching different people.
By Rana Kordahi
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